


a funny thing happened on the way to earth

by ErinNovelist



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Angst, Comedy, F/M, Fluff, Gen, M/M, Post-S6, Romance, Season 6 Spoilers, Team Bonding, Team as Family
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-06-16
Updated: 2018-06-15
Packaged: 2019-05-23 22:57:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,508
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14942948
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ErinNovelist/pseuds/ErinNovelist
Summary: Some things happen that you can’t put words to. The Paladins of Voltron try anyway.(The Team grieves. Relationships are formed. Shiro takes a nap.)





	a funny thing happened on the way to earth

**Author's Note:**

> A series of events that takes place on the Paladins journey back to Earth at the end of Season 6. Features fluff, family, and friendship. What more is there to ask for?

  * **allurance** \+ “ _i’ve made a million mistakes. you aren’t one of them_.”



 

*

 

They sleep in the shadow of a distant moon, hundreds of thousands of light years from the Milky Way, but it reminds Lance of home. Coran calls this Cnardian System where planets with rocky terrains and dying stars hug the outer arm of the spiral galaxy. He thinks of Kerberos on the edge of the Solar System, thinks of the dead and dry horizon of the Arizona desert, thinks of the rocky outcropping near his parents’ home in Cuba. 

This place—it’s familiar.

It’s what he needs the most right now, something to anchor himself to. In the last few days, Lance’s world has been torn to shreds: from friends, allies, enemies, and his home. He wishes he could curl up in his bed back on the Castle of Lions and sleep it all away, but much like everything else, that’s gone as well. Instead, he’s left raw and aching like an open wound, sitting with a scratchy blanket in the pilot chair of the Red Lion while he tries to find slumber surrounded by the stillness of the universe.

He can’t sleep though. 

He misses home. He misses safety. He misses his family. 

He hasn’t seen the rest of his teammates in nearly two days, not since they started the long treacherous journey back to Earth. With just their voices over the communication system, Lance only has a tenuous hold on reality right now. Frankly, he wants nothing more than to collapse and cry and try to piece everything that’s happened together in a disjointed puzzle, but he must keep going because his team needs him too. 

It’s been quiet for a few hours. Everyone had bid their goodnights and goodbyes earlier: a soft murmur from a recovering Shiro, a snore from an already sleeping Hunk, a hushed whisper from Keith, an exuberant _good luck!_ from Coran, and the _clitter-clatter_ of a keyboard from Pidge. 

There’s nothing from Allura though. (He hasn’t heard from her in quite some time, come to think of it.) 

Chewing on his bottom lip, he mulls over the idea of reaching out to her, unsure if she even wants to deal with… everything right now. When it comes to most girls, he usually gives them the time they need to come to terms with things on their own because girls are complex and mysterious creatures. He’d rather not get involved in the emotional drama that usually haunts them like a ghost.

But this isn’t some emotional drama over a boyfriend. This is Allura, his friend, who’s not like any other girls he knows. 

(She’s so much _more_ , and that’s the whole fucking point.)

 Knowing that he isn’t going to fall asleep any time soon, Lance taps a few commands on the dash and pulls up a private line with his fellow Paladin. “A-Allura?” he asks softly, voice cracking over her name. It feels like he hasn’t spoken in days. 

(Maybe he hasn’t.)

“Lance?” Her voice comes through crystal clear. She isn’t sleeping either. “What’s wrong?” 

He shrugs even though he knows she can’t see him. “Just wanted to check in, see how things were going.” He rubs the back of his head, helmet discarded on the floor by the controls. “You’ve been kind of quiet the last couple days.”

There’s a short pause, static clogging the signal. “I’ve just had a lot on my mind. You know how it is.” 

“Not really,” Lance tells her. “I think Shiro wrote that as one of my areas for improvement on my Paladin Job Review last month.” 

Allura snorts but then goes quiet again. “…And you, Lance? Are you alright?” 

He takes a deep breath and blows it out slowly. The burden on his shoulders weighs heavily, and his bones ache something terrible. “No,” he says honestly, dropping his head to his chest. “I don’t think I am.” 

“What happened?” 

“I…” And how can he even put this feeling into words? It’s the pain of a bitter betrayal and broken heart because everything hit so close to home that it _took_ their home, and now he doesn’t know what to do. “I miss it. The Castle, the way it used to be, I just…” 

“It’s hard to lose things.” Allura’s musings are fragile like new cherry blossoms where a simple breeze can break them clean off the branch. “Home and safety, the things you know and love. The people too, I think, that’s always the hardest.” He can hear her swallow over the comms. “I’ve gone through this before. I’m still dealing with it.” 

His heart stutters behind his ribs, beating wildly in its cage desperate to be heard, and though he tries to reign it in, the words slip out before he can catch them. “And… the whole Lotor thing probably doesn’t help.” 

“What does Lotor have to do with any of this?” She doesn’t sound angry, more pensive than anything. 

“You love him,” he says like it’s a known fact, and it is.

He knows a lot about Allura, if he has to be quite honest. Like how she loves Altea, loves her father, loves her home. The thing she craves and the people she cares for are just some of the many qualities that he admires about her. What’s one more revelation? 

“I… did,” she says, each syllable careful and measured. “Yes… I think I did. I cared for him a great deal.”

It hurts him. Lance feels a bubble in his chest burst at her words, like pins driving themselves under his skin, trying to prick every hope that blossoms. Because he knows—he’s known for some time. Ever since they came back from Oriande and started building Lotor’s battleships, he’s known that their relationship has grown and developed far beyond anything he could ever wish for. While he rebelled at the thought of Allura with someone else, Lance couldn’t bring himself to say anything to her.

Because, for a short time, Allura was the happiest he’s ever known her. And who would he be to take that away? 

“I’m sorry it didn’t work out,” he says and clenches his hands into tight fists at his sides. 

Allura sighs. “But I… You know I care for you as well, Lance?” She’s fervent, but Lance doesn’t know what she’s trying to convince him of. He knows she cares—she always has. But he finds that it doesn’t matter. It’s nice to be reminded sometimes. “I just want you to know that.” 

“Of course I do,” he tells her. “And I care about you too, and—” 

“Lance.” Allura’s tone is sharp, cutting through his reply. “I _know_.” 

“O-Okay good,” he says, but he doesn’t know what she means. 

(Perhaps he’s too scared to let himself wonder.) 

(…But _oh, he does._ He does wonder.) 

There’s a sharp _bzzz!_ that cuts through the comms unit and then a video of Allura flashes across his dash. Lance leans back in his chair and wishes he had a mirror, a warning, and some time to prepare. 

In the Blue Lion, the cockpit is dark, and Allura is bathed in the soft blue glow of the console. He can make out the forms of Coran and Romelle nestled on the floor behind her, buried in blankets, already turned in for the night. Lance spots Allura’s own blanket wrapped tightly around her shoulders from where she sits, hunched over in the pilot seat. Clearly, she hasn’t been sleeping either. 

She looks exhausted, dark bags like bruises under her eyes. Fringe plastered against her forehead and tucked behind her ears with locks falling from her updo in tangled curls around the nape of her neck. Her smile is thin and worn. She’s borderline lifeless. Lance imagines he doesn’t look too much better than her. 

“Allura,” he breathes out, her name falling like a prayer between them. 

“I need you to understand,” she says, eyes flashing wildly. Allura leans closer until she’s the only thing visible on his dash. “I’ve made a million mistakes, but you are not one of them.” She’s speaking in earnest now, near tears. 

Lance is speechless. All he can do is stare at her, eyes wide and bright in the low light of the console, and his lips fall open but nothing comes out. 

“I just… need you to know that,” she insists and crumbles in on herself. 

“Allura,” he finally says, no louder than a whisper. 

Allura swallows a thick lump in her throat and reaches towards her dash with shaky hands. “I-I should really be getting to sleep. I’ll talk to you in the morning.” The smile she gives him is more genuine than anything he’s seen in the last few days. 

The communication systems switch off, and the cockpit in the Red Lion is suddenly quiet save for his heavy breathing.

“I… I love you,” he whispers to the stillness, in the space where Allura once was, and to the universe between them.

 (One day, he swears, he’ll tell her.)

 (One day.)


End file.
